news

20 August 2018

Immunocore Announces Start of Phase I ImmTACŪ Study in Patients with Solid Tumours

Immunocore Limited, a leading T Cell Receptor (TCR) biotechnology company, focused on delivering first-in-class biological therapies that have the potential to transform the lives of people with serious diseases, today announces that it has dosed the first patient in a Phase I study, part of an ongoing collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The study, the first programme under Immunocore’s collaboration with GSK to proceed into clinical development, will assess the safety and tolerability of IMCnyeso, an ImmTAC molecule, in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), bladder cancer, melanoma and synovial sarcoma, positive for NY-ESO-1 and/or LAGE-1A. The start of the study has triggered an undisclosed milestone payment to Immunocore.

Under the terms of the collaboration entered into in 2013, Immunocore is responsible for all pre-clinical development and for the initial clinical trial in patients for each of the first two target programmes. Upon exercise of each programme option, GSK would be responsible for the remaining development and commercialisation activities for that target.

Joseph Dukes, Director and Head of Biology at Immunocore, commented: “We are delighted that our world-leading science has delivered a second ImmTAC into the clinic. This is the first partnered programme to commence dosing in patients, representing a critical milestone in our collaboration. It puts this promising programme onto a clinical development path, which we hope will ultimately result in a new treatment option for patients with some of the most difficult-to-treat tumours.”

Axel Hoos, Senior Vice President Oncology R&D at GSK, said “At GSK we are focussed on delivering transformational medicines for cancer patients and we are excited to investigate the scientific promise of ImmTAC technology. The start of this phase I study is another marker of success in our productive collaboration with Immunocore.”